Editing Order of the Solar Temple (section)

=== Gun scandal ===
The next year the group encountered further trouble. Canadian police, then investigating Q-37 (a mysterious group that threatened to assassinate Canadian public officials, which was eventually determined to have never existed), believed the OTS may have been involved.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=224}} Soon after, the group's locations in Quebec were raided and two members were arrested for possession of illegal weapons. Jouret had asked the men to buy three [[Semi-automatic firearm|semi-automatic guns]] with [[Silencer (firearms)|silencers]], illegal in Canada, resulting in their arrest.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|pages=31–32}}{{sfn|Bogdan|2014|p=289}} Jouret and the other two men were given only light sentences (one year of unsupervised probation and a $1000 fine to be paid to the [[Red Cross]]), but in the aftermath the media took interest in the group. The Canadian press began to report, using information gained from police [[wiretaps]] of conversations between members of the OTS, which they described as a "[[doomsday cult]]".{{sfn|Mayer|2006b|p=96}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=180}}

Though Jouret had encouraged some members of the OTS to learn to shoot, at the time, members of Info-Secte believed the group to be of a [[survivalist]] nature, and that they intended to use the weapons to defend themselves after an apocalypse; a representative of Info-Secte publicly expressed his confusion as to why they needed silencers for this purpose. Even [[Tabloid journalism|tabloid]] newspapers, which ran lurid stories about the organization, did not indicate they believed them capable of violence. In March 1993, some members of the group tried to convince the press that the OTS was harmless and mostly dedicated to moral improvement and gardening, and denied allegations of being a cult.{{sfn|Mayer|2006b|p=96}}

Following the arrests, other countries and agencies began investigating as well. Two days after the men were arrested, the [[Sûreté du Québec]] announced an inquiry into the financial aspects of the group, with the Australian police launching a parallel investigation later in the year. A bulletin from [[Interpol]] alleged that Di Mambro and Odile Dancet had been involved in two banking transactions in Australia, each worth $93 million. In 1994, the French authorities delayed the issue of a passport to Di Mambro's wife, Jocelyne, because of an investigation.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=137}} At the same time, a former member of the OTS, Thierry Huguenin, called Di Mambro and demanded his money back, threatening to file a criminal complaint. In February 1994 a photocopied letter was mailed to about 100 members revealing financial misuse; this made both Di Mambro and Jouret furious.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=210}} In March, the Canadian [[RCMP]] were helping the [[Australian Federal Police]] investigate possible [[money-laundering]] by the OTS, and the Swiss authorities also received Australian bulletins.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=137}} No evidence of money-laundering was found, but the accusations fed conspiracy theories.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=142}}

The OTS viewed itself as increasingly persecuted, though according to [[Jean-François Mayer]], there was little actual opposition to the group, with Quebec Public Security Minister [[Claude Ryan]] explicitly stating the government would not surveil cult members in the wake of reports on the group and denying information claiming the group had planned to commit terrorist attacks in Canada.{{sfn|Mayer|2006b|pages=98–99}} The leadership believed the increasing legal and media attention to be both a conspiracy against the OTS and a sign of the [[Kali Yuga]], and the group's ideas became increasingly focused on environmental destruction and [[ecological collapse]].{{sfn|Bogdan|2014|p=289}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=180}}

Compounding the difficulties, Di Mambro also began having issues with Emmanuelle. Though she had been raised from birth to be a messiah figure, by the age of 12 she had become uncooperative, rejecting her role in the group and taking an interest in typical teenage [[pop culture]]. He believed her to be under threat from the [[Antichrist]], who, he believed, was born to Tony and Nicky Dutoit in summer 1994. Di Mambro had previously forbidden Nicky from giving birth, but after she left the group had a son, Christopher Emmanuel. Di Mambro, deeply offended by the name similarity, the disobeying of his instructions, and that he had not been consulted in the naming of the infant, ordered the family murdered later in 1994.{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}}